All-star balloting wraps up in the next 10 days. And this year, I must say this year the fan's have done a great pretty solid job (at least in the senior circuit).
The NL is shaping up to be: Berkman, Utley, Tejada, C. Jone, Soriano, Fukudome, and Griffey
(you could argue against the outfield, but overall it wasn't too bad - and you know deep down you really want to see Griffey at the game and Soriano's hurt).
The AL is a disgrace....a Boston and NY disgrace. I am embarrassed to be an AL fan - there are other teams than Boston and NY: Youklis, Pedroia, Jeter, A-rod, Papi, Manny, Ichiro, Hamilton. (I am glad to see Hamilton there).
Today, I am going to discuss a time-honorer all-star tradition - Each team gets at least one representative. I love this rule. I am sick of people complaining about it. For the average baseball fan the only games we get to see on national TV are Yanks, Cubs, Sox, Braves, etc. There is no national love for KC, Oak, SF, Cle, etc. There are fans of all these teams - and they all deserve an all-star, even if they don't have millions of ballot stuffers putting an injured Papi into the game. If having one all star from each team means that a deserving Damon or Ellsbury doesn't make it in favor of a Jose' Guillen or Brian Roberts -that is fine by me. The average fan is so sick of Yankees and Red Sox. NY and BOS fans are already voting in non-deserving Jeters and Papis The small markets should be represented as well. So here are your 2008 All-star(s) from all teams below 0.500 as of June 22. I am paying no attention to position - if 20 middle relievers are deserving, then that is who I will select. I will let Francona and Hurdle deal with that problem.
Today we will go through the AL - NL later this week:
Baltimore Orioles: Aubrey Huff DH - besides saving my fantasy team Huff has solid stats 0.271 14 42. He is also slugging .500 and has scored 42 runs.
- you could also make a case for - Brian Roberts, Jim Johnson
Toronto Blue Jays: Roy Halladay SP - run support? hello run support? maybe this should be Doc Halladay's blog. He is only 8-6 but has 93 strikeouts, 5 CGs, and a 2.90 ERA
- you could also make a case for - Alex Rios
Detroit Tigers: Magglio Ordonez OF - the 2007 AL MVP runner-up has been having another solid solid season .301 11 45. Also slugging .482 and has scored 41 runs.
- you could also make a case for - Carlos Guillen, Armando Galarraga, Placido Polanco
Cleveland Indians: Cliff Lee SP - no doubter here. 10-1, .245 ERA, 79 k's, and 1 saved career.
-you could also make a case for - Grady Sizemore, Ben Francisco
Kansas City Royals: Jose Guillen OF - strong season, called out his teammates, and managed to hit .289 12 57. He has been on a terror of late and every all-star team needs that crazy guy.
- you could also make a case for - Joakim Soria, Zach Greinke
Texas Rangers - Josh Hamilton OF - has been the feel good story of the year. Wait. What's that? The Rangers are at 0.500? Your kidding. Your not kidding? Ok - well let's move on.
Seattle Mariners - Ichiro Suzuki OF - the fans will once again vote in Ichiro, and its really hard to argue 0.293, 52 runs, 32 SB. He is going to have 200 hits again this year, and he has a hose in the outfield
- you could also make a case for - Jose Lopez, Felix Hernandez (Roy Halladay lite)
Those are my 2008 sub 0.500 AL all-stars - we will go through the NL a bit later. Anyone else you think I missed - toss it in the comments section.
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